


Water: Falling

by FuzzySlipper



Series: Of Songs and Harmony [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Additional Content, And oh is it fun, Episode-by-episode, F/M, Gen, Might get darker than the show, Minor AU, Playing with the mythos, Shameless character insert, This is really just for fun
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-26
Updated: 2015-03-12
Packaged: 2018-03-15 07:49:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3439328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FuzzySlipper/pseuds/FuzzySlipper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She has been falling all her life, with only her mother to catch her. But she is adrift now, sent far from her side at the spirits' bidding. She has been summoned from the Fire Nation to help the Avatar as he awakens, and to do that she must become a traitor--and in this confront the embodiment of her greatest fear.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>(cross-posted to Fanfiction.net under the name of Falcon's Hyperdrive)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: The Old Wives' Tales

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't be starting another story with all the others I have going on... But I just went full bore through _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ , and I was captivated. So much so, that even when I was reading fanfiction for the show in the middle of watching it, I refused to read ahead of where I was! And then I started this, just before the series finale of those four episodes, because the voices were shouting at me to write it down. Thankfully not like a certain crazy somebody's voices, though! Yeah, you fans know who exactly I'm talking about.
> 
> Anyway, this is a shameless character-insert. Hopefully she isn't a total Mary-Sue, but I'm just writing this for fun and because it's stuck in my head. Her character has morphed more than a bit since I first thought of her, and I went to behindthename-dot-com to look for real Chinese, Japanese, and Korean names for my OCs since its inception (my character was named Sola, and this briefly Solaris, in my head for a time). The story currently sticks pretty close to the episodes of the show, but since this is told almost entirely from my OC's perspective it should result in some deviations from the original plotline. Still, it shouldn't be too AU in this first book, but we'll see. As of the current moment, in my writing this, I am working on chapter eight, which is for Episode Four. There are twenty episodes, and though I may skip over one or two I will also be adding in some content. I guess we'll all just have to wait and see where the story takes us, because it's certainly taking me on a trip! If I rewrite anything as I'm going along, I'll let you know what chapters have been edited so that you can go back and see what I've added. At the current moment, episodes are split in half so there are only 2,000-3,000 words in a chapter. It seems to work rather well for me.
> 
> And I don't normally do disclaimers, but maybe in this case, due to its format, it is a little more necessary. _Avatar: The Last Airbender_ , with its various canon characters and scripts belong to Nickelodeon and its writers and artists. The intro speech narrated by Katara has been altered from its original form by me to fit with my fan character's perspective. Elements of this story were inspired by other fanfiction writers, and incorporated here into what is hopefully a new form. Original Fan Characters in this story are all created by me, though perhaps in part inspired by others, and I guess they're kind of mine, then. I am not trying to steal someone else's plot or characters here, and if it is in any way very similar to another fanfiction author's story then it is because it is a character insert story and follows the plot of the show. Similarities are inevitably going to exist in that box.
> 
> Further warnings, I may attempt to get a little bit dark further into the story, certainly near the end. I do not know if I will be able to accurately portray the psyche of a character such as the one I've put together, since I've lived a good life, myself, and I apologize sincerely for any offense this might cause.

"Hanuel? Hanuel, what is it? What's wrong?"

A crinkle of paper, a rush of air, and Hanuel crunched the letter in his hands as he bowed his head over it. "Terrible news, Xiu," he answered. "The Avatar, he has disappeared. Those foolish elders! They should have waited until the boy was of age, not four years prior!" 

Clad in dark red robes, long brown hair brought up partially in the topknot customary of her people, Xiu strode forward on the grassy slope to stand beside the tall monk and placed a slender hand on his shoulder. "What does this mean for you?" she asked, voice tight. 

"They are calling me to join the search. The boy left from the Southern Air Temple, and those able-bodied Airbenders from the South and East are being sent to look for him. The North and West will search up there, but since the monks know I am in the Fire Nation I am to look to the south." 

"And…if you don't find him?" 

Hanuel's expression was drawn and tight. "Then I fear the outcome, for both him and the world. We will search a month, then I am to go to the Southern Temple to report. Xiu…" His features softened, and he brushed the tears from her eyes with callused thumbs. "I am afraid," he confessed. 

Xiu wrapped her arms around him. "Surely you'll return?" 

"I would take you away with me if I thought you would be safe. I do not think that— The Fire Navy has had suspicious movements of late, and you know the words being spread through the nation of 'sharing the light.' They would kill you with me." 

"Don't say that! You can't die!" 

He bowed his head to meet hers, touching their foreheads together. "I fear I will," he whispered to her. "It is a feeling that I have. If I do survive, I will return to you, I swear. But if not— I leave my heart here with you, forever in your hands." 

... ... ... 

_Water and earth, fire, air—together these elements give life to the world, and separately we wield their power._

 _My mother and her mother used to tell me stories about the old days…a time of peace, when the Avatar kept balance between the Water Tribes, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and Air Nomads. But that all changed when the Fire Nation attacked._

 _

Only the Avatar could wield and master all four elements, and only he could stop the ruthless Firebenders. But when the world needed him most, he disappeared, leaving the world to fall beneath the flames of oppression. A hundred years have passed, and the Fire Nation is nearing victory in the war. I am of that nation, and I wish with all my heart that I wasn't. I see no glory in the war, and my mother's lessons have taught me the truth of its evil. I would go far away from here if I could, and help those that my people have hurt so badly—even if I had to die at my father's hand. 

Some people believe that the Avatar was never reborn into the Air Nomads, and that the cycle is broken. I know in my heart that this is a lie. We, my mother and I, haven't lost hope. We still believe that, somehow, with help from the spirits, he is preserved—and that he will return to save the world. It is, my mother says, only a matter of time.

_


	2. Chapter One: The Chamber of Songs

Father was angry. His fire curled and licked hungrily like starving dogs, and she backed away from the flames and their searing heat as quickly as she could. “Bend!” he demanded. “You said you can feel it, so Bend!” 

“Daddy, I can’t!” She cowered down, covering the back of her head with her hands. “I tried, I can’t!” 

A burning hand was laid with full force against her temple and cheek, and she toppled sideways with a pained cry. There was no blistering of the skin, but the strength of the blow made it feel just as painful as a burn might be. “You are a humiliation, a disgrace,” her father snarled. “Get out of my sight, NOW!” 

The little girl scrambled to her feet, her eyes fixed on the ground lest she meet his fiery gaze and reawaken the full brunt of his rage. And then she ran, the smell of hot ash held permanently in her mind, and she didn’t look back.

... ... ... 

Rocks crumbled beneath her feet, pitching her forward toward the edge, and behind her a woman gasped in fear. She started to fall—and then stopped, caught by strong, gentle hands that guided her upright once more. 

“Carefully, Xun!” The woman pulled firmly on the dark grey sleeve in its grasp to get Xun on solid footing, and held her still as both their hearts calmed from the rush of adrenaline. Xun’s pounded in her ears, and she felt the thrill of the scare gradually fading as she took comfort in Mother’s hold. “There are no Airbenders here to save you if you fall,” her mother chided with a soft smile. Xiang smoothed dark brown hair away from her daughter’s face to clear her vision, and brown eyes met the soft, warm grey of the younger woman’s for a short moment before Xiang was walking again. “Come, we must reach the inner sanctum before sunset.” 

Picking up her feet a little better this time, Xun scurried after the woman wrapped in dark red robes. “Why are we here, Mother?” she asked, trying her best to keep her eyes on her path rather than the vast temple around her. “What is so important about this place?” 

“It has a rich history, my dear. Far richer than you know, richer than I have ever had freedom to tell you before or time to tell you now.” 

“Okay…” Catching up, Xun fell into step with her mother and resisted the urge to grab hold of her sleeve like she had as a child. “Why are we going to this ‘inner sanctum’?” 

“Because it is time,” came the cryptic reply. “I will explain when we arrive.” 

Xun paused a moment to turn again, taking in the massive complex of the Western Air Temple, a stupendous feat of engineering possibly built in tandem with Earthbenders, creating buildings that clung like stalactites to the underside of a giant ledge at the edge of a canyon. It was eerily still here, the inhabitants all murdered by the Fire Nation long ago and likely tossed into the great pit above which they had lived, if the whispered tales of her mother were true. Xun tended to believe her mother, however, and she certainly had far more cause to trust her than her sire—the less said of him the better, she thought. 

“Xun!” 

“Coming!” She hurried again to catch up, and together they ducked briefly through a short tunnel before approaching a massive set of tarnished bronze doors set into the cliff face, stretching high over their heads. “Whoa,” she breathed, heart pounding in her ears as she stared up at them. “That’s— But how do we get in?” 

A wind swept through the canyon, whistling among the rubble and spires to buffet against them. Xun covered her head, bracing herself, but it did no more than tug playfully at her hair before it whipped away, leaving a soft _click_ in its wake. The girl looked up to see the great doors come open a crack, and Xiang stepped forward to push the gap wider. 

“Come, my daughter,” she said quietly. Xun looked up at her, confusion pinching a frown in her lips, but followed obediently as the older, raven-haired woman led the way inside. 

“What is going on, Mother?” she whispered, the silence of the place and the pressing darkness creating the sense that a loud word would cause terrible things to happen. The sound of her mother closing the door echoed like a resounding gong in that stillness, and she clenched her fists in the sleeves of her robes. Commoners’ robes, which she usually preferred to wear but had actually been instructed to do so this time. Grey, not red, nondescript among all nations, but also more like a rain cloud than smoke in its color. 

Using a set of spark-rocks, Xiang lit the torch in her hand, pulled from the heavy pack she carried, and set the place aglow. Oh, it was beautiful. Curling bronze, untouched by the elements and preserved as if in amber, decorated the walls and the white railing between them and a sunken floor in the center of the chamber. The room was easily three times as tall as it was wide, with a square layout and a circular depression in the middle. There was a sort of sculpture there, with the same twisting and curling forms of bronze as decorated the room, peaking in each part with an open cylinder. Some broadened like a cup, some tapered, while some stuck straight up like a smoke stack. There were intricate weaves made of the twisting pipes, small gaps and wide openings where freely hanging sticks of bronze hung on wire. It was an instrument, Xun realized with a sharp gasp, and she felt a painful clench in her heart as she felt a sudden longing for its music. It shone in the light of the torch with a warm, orange glow, casting warbled shadows on their skin and on the pale grey walls, and the young woman couldn’t bring herself to look away, even when her mother touched her shoulder. 

“One of the last great treasures of the Air Nomads,” Xiang whispered. “We stand in the Chamber of Songs, a sacred place for the monks. On high days, they would send the breeze whistling through and over the branches of the sculpture, and the wind would sing to them.” 

“How is it still here? I would have thought that the Fire Lord would have long ago destroyed it if he knew.” 

“Only an Airbender may enter this place, and airbending is the key to the lock. And when the Fire Prince came, he was not interested in pretty pipes, and General Iroh was able to keep him distracted from this particular set of doors. You’ve noticed, I’m sure, how deep we are into the temple. This and the Sanctuary are the closest guarded secrets of the Air Nomads—or they were.” Xiang’s head had bowed in grief as she spoke, but she picked it up again with a deep breath. “But beauty and song are not why we are here.” 

“Why are we here?” Finally, Xun looked away from the stunning sculpture and clutched tightly to her mother’s hand. “And if only an Airbender may enter, how did we get in?” 

Xiang’s smile was bitter, and she used her daughter’s hold on her to pull her to a set of stairs leading down to the main floor. “The spirits have been calling. They are summoning _you_.” 

“ _Me?_ ” 

“Yes. It is no accident that the wind came just as the doors opened, Xun. They have spoken to me in my dreams, and they told me to prepare you for a journey.” 

Xun tugged on Xiang’s hand and gave her a wide-eyed stare. “Mother, you’re scaring me.” 

With a firm but gentle grasp, Xiang pulled her forward to stand before the bronze pipes, then drew her down to kneel before it at the edge of the sunken floor. “Let me explain it better. Do you remember the stories I have told you? Of Xiu, and Hanuel, and the days of peace? Good, I had hoped you would. Cling tightly to those, and do not forget them. Now, listen closely. The Avatar _is_ alive.” 

Xun felt her jaw drop, and faced her mother fully. “What!” 

“Yes, and the time for his awakening will come soon. The spirits have told me this much. And your aid would be a great boon to him, if you are willing to give it.” 

“I—” She cleared her throat. “Truly? Me? I mean, I know a bit of sword play, but I can’t even Bend.” 

“Yes, you. Bending is unnecessary, you would be of help to him regardless—and he will be a help to you. But Xun, you would become an enemy of the Fire Nation if you step upon this path. For you cannot remain loyal to the Fire Lord if you choose loyalty to the Avatar. Your own father would seek to hunt you down and destroy you.” 

A growl leapt to her throat compulsively. “He is no father of mine,” she bit out, but then breathed deeply to calm herself. The torchlight flickered steadily, unchanged, and she couldn’t even spare a disappointed glance this time. “I want to see the world,” she said instead of continuing the previous train of thought. “You have told me how the Fire Lord and the schoolmasters lie to us, how we deceive ourselves in this bloodbath, and I want to see this for myself. If I am to be a traitor to the Fire Nation, then a traitor I will be.” 

Her mother’s hands reached up to remove the tie binding her topknot in place. Her hair fell to join the rest of it, and steady fingers turned her by the shoulders before weaving a single long plait. “Do not wear your hair as a traditional Fire Nation citizen until you can again feel pride in any part of it. This is my request to you.” 

“Yes, Mother,” Xun answered obediently, bowing her head in respect. 

“Good girl. Now, put these on. I am not certain where the spirits will send you, but in my visions it seemed to be rather cold.” 

From the pack she had carried, Xiang removed a thick parka, this a lighter grey than her dress. Fingering it thoughtfully, Xun decided it was like a pale cloud, not white and fluffy but also not heavy with rain. Boots and gloves were handed to her next, the same pale grey as the coat, and by the time she was fully bundled she was sweating heavily. It was entirely too warm here for these clothes. 

Xiang took the pack, shifted some things inside of it, and then held it out to slide onto Xun’s back. “Keep this close,” she instructed. “I did not put anything valuable inside, save for some coins I traded for that are from the Earth Kingdom, but there is not much of that and I didn’t want to give you anything that you couldn’t afford to lose, or anything that would endanger you.” 

Xun reached out and took her mother’s hands in her own gloved ones and squeezed, smiling. “Thank you,” she said. A moment after, she was wrapped close in Xiang’s arms. She closed her eyes against the sudden tears, and buried her face in her mother’s shoulder. “I will miss you, Mama.” 

“Oh, my sweet Xun… I will miss you, too. But as my own mother told me, you cannot be free until you see the truth of your shackles. And only in freedom will you find your song. It is too late for me, but I will spare you my fate however I can.” 

The girl sniffed, a wet sound that rasped in the stillness. “Will I see you again?” 

“I hope with all my heart that you will.” 

With one last tightening of the arms, Xun pulled back to swipe an arm across her face, wiping away the tears that left her eyes stained red. “If anyone asks, I have run away to explore the world, and you begged me not to go but could not stop me.” 

“So be it.” Xiang stood, and their fingers slipped apart from each other. “I love you so much, my brave child. Be safe.” 

“I will try.” A painful smile touch her lips. “And I love you, too.” 

And then her mother was gone. The torchlight receded up the stairs, carried aloft by a long, slender arm, and then the great door opened and was closed again—leaving her in darkness. Xun felt her breath catch in her throat. Even at night she had the soft glow of the lamps on the walls, or the pale luminescence of the moon and stars. She had fallen into sleep many nights feeling for the heat of those lamps, holding it inside and crying at the unfairness of it all, that she should feel it but be unable to produce even a whiff of smoke or a single spark for her father. But darkness, she couldn’t remember the last time she had been subjected to that smothering entity. 

She breathed deep, forcing herself into what meditation techniques she could scramble to recall. She was facing away from the sculpture, as she remembered—and it was behind her that the light grew into being. 

Xun whipped around, hands raised in half-remembered defensive techniques. The light was blue, and almost formless, and hovered above the pipes to cast a green reflection onto the walls. The light was blue, and as she stared it began to take shape. It was…and just like that the six-legged behemoth was gone, replaced with a sort of hawk, and then a turtle-duck, a cat-owl, a wolf-bat, a salamander-swan, a flying lemur, a butterfly-crow, a fox-heron, a— 

It flashed, a brilliant glow that nearly blinded her as she raised her arms to protect her eyes. And then the whispers began, and the tinkling whistles of a song. They beckoned her forward, into the building music, the swelling storm… And into the whirlwind she walked.


	3. Chapter Two: The Southern Water Tribe

Everything was a scalding white and blue, swallowing her whole in its gaping maw. And it was so bitterly cold, as though she had been dropped suddenly into a cooler from the sweltering heat of a jungle. The last she remembered, she was looking into the pulsing light of the spirit above the pipes, carried forward by her feet and the pressing wind. She had— She had touched it. Had it blinded her in its brilliance? Had it gotten angry, and frozen her? Had it… _eaten_ her? 

“Hey!” 

No, of course it hadn’t eaten her, unless it had also swallowed the owner of that voice. Blinking resolved the world into literally frozen forms around her, with a pale blue expanse over her head that brushed itself with wispy clouds. The white forms were towers of snow and ice, and she felt herself bobbing slowly as if on a rowboat. The cold? The air around her, a tundra almost stark and barren. 

“Hey, wake up!” 

She blinked again, turning her head to look at the owner of the hand shaking her. It was a boy, somewhere around her age she figured, and he had blue eyes. His skin was dark, and his hair was mostly shorn away except in the middle row, which was tied back in a…wolf’s tail, she thought it was called. His coat was similar to hers, being thick and warm, but it, too, was blue. Water Tribe? She was at one of the poles. 

The boy jumped back when she moved and brandished a sharp boomerang at her. “Who are you, and where did you come from?” 

Uhh… Help? 

Xun brought her gloved hands up to rub at her eyes, ignoring the way the boy kind of yelped at the action. “Where am I?” she asked instead of answering. 

That seemed to make him hesitate, because he shuffled his feet and suddenly dropped to a crouch in front of her. “You’re at the South Pole,” he told her. 

Oh. In other words, the other side of the world. 

She pushed the thought away. Her mother had always told her that the spirits worked in ways humans were unable to understand. That didn’t mean they couldn’t try to understand, but Mother had told her not to be disappointed if she couldn’t ever figure it out. Case in point, this sudden transport. 

“I’m Xun,” she answered after a long, silent moment. “Mother took me to the Western Air Temple, said that— Well, and now I’m here.” 

He looked suspiciously at her, and probably didn’t appreciate the forced cutoff there in her words. But he nodded, finally, and said, “I’m Sokka.” 

She shivered, violently, feeling the sweat built up from roasting in the chamber start to cool, and with a sigh he held out a hand to pull her up. “Come on, you look cold. I’ll question you while you get warmed up, okay?” 

“Um…okay…” She accepted his grip and felt the pack pulling her backwards as she rose, so was forced to shift her footing on the—ice floe? It shifted with her, but Sokka’s hand kept her upright. “Is it always this cold here?” 

“Well, yeah. It’s the _South Pole_.” Sokka looked at her as if she had lost her marbles, but she figured he already thought she had misplaced those. “Are you alone, or is your ship nearby?” 

Xun shook her head. “There wasn’t any ship, I swear,” she answered. “There was this…spirit, I think, and I touched it and it sent me here. It kept shifting between looking like different types of birds and flying things, and it felt like I was in a windstorm. And it was blue, like the sky, and shone like the sun.” 

“If you say so.” He was rolling his eyes as he helped her off the floe and started leading her away, and she figured she could give that cause up for lost. Instead of pursuing that angle, she switched to the other question he had asked. 

“And it’s just me. My mother was there, but she left so that whatever it was could take me here. I’m sorry, I know this sounds really really crazy—” 

“Kinda, yeah.” 

“—but I swear on my life that I am telling the truth.” 

He stopped walking to turn and stare at her, almost resulting in her running into him. Briefly, she wondered what had caused that reaction, and then she realized. Her life; she had sworn on her life. Meeting his gaze fully, she put all her conviction and sincerity into her eyes—or as much as she could, in her weariness. It wasn’t long before he dropped his stare and turned back to the frozen landscape. “Not many swear on that,” he told her. 

“I do,” she stated firmly. “The spirits sent me here for a purpose, and if you don’t believe that then I’m hosed anyway.” 

Sokka laughed. “Yeah! I guess you are. Come on, the village is this way. Gran-Gran puts more stock into this spirit stuff than I do, so maybe she’ll believe you. I mean, as far as I know, you could be a Fire Nation spy or something, so don’t think I won’t be watching you.” 

Xun let the frown touch her lips as she followed after. A spy? Hardly. And why did he make that distinction, about the Fire Nation? The war was to spread— The war was a lie, she recalled suddenly, and lowered her ashamed gaze to fix on the back of his coat. A brilliant lie to a prideful people—a terrible lie, to a gullible nation. If Mother was to be believed—and she was—the war was not salvation but damnation, and she was about to be dunked headfirst into her first exposure of its consequences. 

They crested a snowy bank, and she sucked in a breath that stung her lungs with the chill. “You said _the_ village,” she rasped. “Are there other villages?” 

Sokka paused, looked at her askance. “No.” 

“It’s just…it’s so small. This is… This is _all_ of you?” 

He seemed to realize she was genuinely surprised by this, and nodded slowly. “My father and all the other men are off fighting in the war. The Fire Nation has killed or imprisoned all our Waterbenders, too, and what you see here is all that is left of us.” 

Xun swallowed hard and pressed her palms to her eyes. This wasn’t any sort of _enlightenment_ , spreading the glory of the Fire Nation in a grand empire; this was genocide, just as it had been for Hanuel’s people. 

_Yes,_ she shouted in her heart. _Yes, I will help the Avatar._ But the spirits were silent, and Sokka beckoned her onward. Her moment of taking it all in would have to wait until later, because a feeling was building in her chest that was absolutely going to have to be dealt with in the near future. And there was no grand revelation for her, only the bitter wind freezing the tears on her cheeks. 

... ... ... 

Xun knelt on the fur pelt in front of Sokka’s grandmother and bowed her forehead to the softened ground. “Thank you, madam, for accepting me into your home, however long you allow my presence.” Old manners, taught long ago by her grandfather on her sire’s orders, but they seemed fitting in this moment. Forget the posh nobles, forget the prideful military commanders, forget the frankly creepy royalty, this woman and her family deserved these words more than any of those. And she was the elder of the village, besides, the mother-in-law of the chief—Sokka’s father, as it turned out. A girl sharing the same dark complexion and bright blue eyes knelt beside the old woman, and at Xun’s best guess it was probably Sokka’s sister. She had kind, soft features, and seemed younger than her by maybe a year or so. 

The old woman, not nearly so frail as she looked, placed a warm hand on the top of Xun’s head. “Don’t bow to me, child. I'm not that special, and we aren’t that formal. I am Kanna, but you may call me Gran-Gran. This is my granddaughter Katara, and you have met her older brother Sokka. He tells me your name is Xun, and that you claim to have been transported here by the spirits.” 

“Yes, m— Gran-Gran,” she corrected herself, lifting herself back up so that she was merely kneeling, matching the pose of the woman across from her. “My mother took me to the Western Air Temple. She said she had been having visions of the spirits summoning me to a cold place, and before that to the Chamber of Songs. It was— I don’t know if I’m allowed to say what it looked like, really, but it was so beautiful. And then, after she left, a spirit like a blue fire floated above the central sculpture and shifted among different forms. It’s like I felt drawn to it, and when I touched it there was so much light and wind, and then I found myself here, where Sokka found me.” 

“Hmm. Your name is fitting, then, to have been dropped into our laps in such a way.” 

“You believe her, Gran-Gran?” Katara asked from beside the old woman. 

“Katara, in your life you will find that the spirits do what they will, and there is no accounting for what they may do. If they wish to bring a young woman from across the world in a single breath, then of course they will do so. Normally, the body stays while the spirit travels, but in this case I think they chose to do it differently. Now, Xun, where are you from? For the Air Nomads are gone, and I highly doubt the spirits have brought you here out of the past.” 

“No, Sokka told me the date and it’s the very same day as I left,” Xun agreed. 

“Indeed. Now, then… Are you from the Earth Kingdom? I do not think you are from the Northern Water Tribe, as you are obviously unused to the cold.” 

Xun looked away, down into the fur at her knees. “I am not.” 

“Oh, so you are Earth Kingdom?” Katara pushed, tilting her head to the side. Shoulders slumping, Xun could already feel herself shrinking down. 

“No,” she answered quietly. “I am all that you hate and fear, and for that I hate and fear myself.” 

From beside them all, in the shadows at the edge of the tent, Sokka hissed. “Fire Nation!” 

“Yes.” She bowed again, the built up tension causing her shoulders and arms to tremble. “Please, listen to my words and judge me only after them. I grew up on my mother’s stories, and she on hers, and through our mothers we remember what used to be between the nations. Through them, we whisper the truth where we are surrounded by lies. In the schools, we are told that it is a grand war, a great war, and the navy’s duty is to spread our greatness to the rest of the world. My mother, in secret, told me differently—and it is to my mother’s teachings I cling, not my nation’s. I have abandoned that nation, have sworn not to call myself its citizen until it becomes in any part something to be proud of.” She pressed her forehead to the fur, resisting the urge to bang it against the hard ground. “There are no wondrous battles,” she said in a voice full of tears, “I see that truth for myself, now. The soldiers of the Fire Navy have decimated your people, and there is no glory or vaunted honor in that. I pledge myself to your service, if you will have me, and I renounce any loyalty to the Fire Lord.” 

The tent was silent, a stillness that stretched on for several minutes, it seemed, before Gran-Gran shifted in her place. “Sokka, your opinion? As son of the chief, what you say has weight. With me, you lead in his absence.” 

“I—” The boy stopped, hesitating. “Well, you’re not a soldier, right?” 

“No,” Xun promised. “I am not.” 

“And you seemed pretty sincere when you pledged yourself to us. And if word ever got back to the Fire Nation that you’d _renounced_ loyalty, you’d be labeled a traitor.” 

Xun winced. “I know, and I pray that my mother does not have to face that same fate, that her role in events is never discovered.” 

“Oh. Okay, then.” By the sound of it, Sokka had just stood up. “We’ll say you’re from the Earth Kingdom, then, to anyone who comes knocking. That will allow lots of room for interpretation, and your name sounds like it could be from there, too. As son of the chief, I will allow you to stay—on probation. You can’t go anywhere alone yet, and for now you are not allowed to know any village secrets.” 

“Sokka,” his sister protested. 

“This is for everyone’s protection, Katara, including yours. Gran-Gran?” 

The hand returned to Xun’s head, and she sat up again to look Gran-Gran in the eyes. “I give my blessing,” the old woman said. “The Fire Nation has done much harm to our people, but if there are more individuals like you then perhaps I can feel hope again. I do not hold the navy’s actions against you.” 

Xun felt the tension release, and bit back a relieved sob. “Thank you,” she told the family earnestly. “Thank you.” 

... ... ... 

That night, the tent dark only by benefit of the heavy walls, Xun stared up at the ceiling and did her best to keep her breaking heart from shattering. She wanted her mother, wanted to run to her room and feel her arms around her, and to wrap her with her own. Instead she got warm furs and hugged the bedding Mother had packed for her, burying her nose in the scent of home. She wanted— She wasn’t sure what else she wanted, because Mother was foremost on her mind and she just wanted to be home. 

But she couldn’t go home, not for a long time, yet. She was on the other side of the world, where that morning she had been on a ship approaching the Western Air Temple. She was hiding from her own nation, and had the goal of aiding the Fire Lord’s greatest enemy. She was laying in a tent with the Southern Water Tribe, a people devastated and ruined by her nation’s armies. If her father ever found out, he really would kill her. And hopefully she had dodged the arrow of the arranged marriage he had been plotting for her next birthday, as she had just turned fifteen. Now she’d be forever ineligible among her people, at least until the war ended at the Avatar’s hand. 

And how long would that take, she wondered. How long until she found him, how long until the end of the world? 

How long until the world crumbled, and the only one left to catch her was herself?


	4. Chapter Three: The Boy in the Iceberg

The days passed, the endless sun throwing off her sense of time with only her new friends to keep her on any sort of sensible schedule. Life in the Fire Nation had revolved around the cycle of the sun, and since she had lived close to the equator it had been a very regular schedule of sunsets and sunrises. Noon was always noon, and the sun always set at close to the same hour. For the Firebenders, it came naturally to rise with the sun, but even non-Benders had greeted it with the morning. 

For the most part, the old sleep schedule was preserved by her body’s clock, but the midnight sun had the tendency to wake her up sometimes, and it drove her nuts. Katara listened sympathetically to her frustrations when they built up too much for the week, and in return Xun gave Katara the friendship both girls were craving. Of course, it was through hanging out with Katara, and consequently Sokka, so much that she learned the biggest of the “village secrets” that Sokka had foremost in his mind that first day. 

She had never seen anything other than firebending before, she reflected as she stared at the hovering globe of liquid. Katara had a look of utmost concentration on her face, and her shoulders were tense as she waved her hands about, reaffirming her hold on all parts of the wavering sphere. The water hung as if falling from the sky, buffeted by the air—but instead of gravity and wind pressing against it, it was Katara’s Bending powers at work.

Xun knelt quietly next to Katara, doing her best not to break her friend’s concentration. It didn’t seem as if Katara had noticed her, because she didn’t even look at Xun as she bit on her tongue and furrowed her brow in her efforts to smooth the ball of water. It was Sokka, in the end, that broke her focus.

He rounded the hill to see the two girls kneeling beside each other, and the hovering mass of liquid, and immediately yelped. “Katara!”

The water splashed down, and Xun jerked back, bringing her arm up to shield her face. “Sokka, you made her stop!” she whined.

“Xun, you weren’t even supposed to know. Katara, what were you _thinking?_ ”

Katara blushed and looked down. “I was just practicing. I didn’t think she was anywhere nearby, she was helping Gran-Gran with the laundry last I knew. But, is it really so bad that she saw?”

Xun rushed to speak before Sokka could say anything accusatory. “I swear, I won’t speak of this to anyone. It was _beautiful_ looked at her. It felt like the first day at the Pole, both when he discovered her and when he pronounced her conditionary welcome. Finally, he nodded. “Fine. But I’m still keeping my eye on you.”

“Oh, give it a rest, Sokka!” Katara groaned. “She’s been here over two months now, and she’s even got her own Water Tribe name. She’s one of us, and she hasn’t done anything to put us at risk.”

“The Fire Navy hasn’t even been close enough to pass a message to, so maybe she just hasn’t had the opportunity,” he snarked.

“Sokka, would you listen to yourself?!”

Xun pressed her fist against the wrenching pain in her chest. It wasn’t anything new, of course, Sokka’s suspicions—but she wished she could have some way of proving her worth to him, and her loyalty. “It’s all right, Katara,” she interjected softly. “Sokka’s just trying to protect you, and the village. I am still an outsider, even if I have been accepted as part of the village. I still wear the grey garments I came here with, and while I am Youko I am also Xun, and given your past experiences I do not blame him at all for his distrust.”

Katara’s expression twisted, and she reached out for the girl. “Your name was chosen for a reason. You are one of us, though you are a child of the Fire Nation. ‘Youko’ means both ‘ocean child’ and ‘sunlight child,’ and Gran-Gran knows you are true to us while still holding the Fire Nation in your heart as home.”

The grey-eyed girl bowed her head. “But to Sokka, I am still an outsider. Until _he_ trusts me, he—the son of the chief, and for all purposes the leader of the village—I will never truly be one of you.”

“Xun—”

“She’s right, Katara,” Sokka interrupted. “I still don’t trust her, not completely. You and Gran-Gran may consider her as part of the village, but I don’t. Not yet.”

Katara’s shoulders dropped, and Xun reached out to comfort her. “It’s fine,” she assured her, squeezing her friend’s shoulders gently. “Just give it time. If or when it happens is up to Sokka, and he’s got your safety in mind before any sense of belonging for me. Go on, I know you two were going to go fishing. I’m going to get back to Gran-Gran, and I’ll see you both when you get back. All right?”

“Okay,” Katara answered with a small smile. 

“Don’t hold it against him,” Xun added. “He’s just looking out for you, and don’t let me come between you.”

Her smile grew, and the Waterbender nodded. “All right,” she agreed. “Come on, Sokka, let’s go fishing.”

Sokka seemed rather happy at the thought, and Xun left them to it to get to her own work. Out of sight of the siblings, however, her own shoulders dropped and she sighed heavily. “Why’d the spirit send me here if there isn’t an Avatar to join up with?” she asked the wind. “I can see the truth of my mother’s lessons, I could see them my first day here. Am I just going to wait around until I’m old and grey, is that it?”

The wind had no answer for her, but she hadn’t expected one. Stepping forward again, she made her way back to the village.

... ... ...

“Xun! Xun, come here! I want to show you something!”

Standing from where she knelt by the fire, Xun swiped an arm across her brow then reached to grab her coat. “I’m in here, Katara!” she called back as she pulled the heavy garment over her head. Gloves on, hood up, she ducked out of the tent to find her friend. Instead, Katara found her.

The younger Water Tribe girl seized her arm to pull her forward, dragging her along through the village until they came to a stop in front of a massive creature covered in white fur and bearing a saddle. It had six legs, and a tan arrow came down over its forehead and another over its large, paddle-like tail. It looked, she realized, like the first creature the spirit in the Chamber of Songs had formed, and now that she was able to study it she actually recognized the beast.

“A sky bison,” she whispered in awe. Not hearing her, Katara skipped forward to bury her hands in the creature’s flank. 

“This is Appa. We found a boy trapped in an iceberg,” she babbled, “and Appa was with him. Aang—the boy—is asleep right now, but he said this is his flying bison! Except, he’s too tired to fly right now, but I’m sure he’s telling the truth, and Aang’s an Airbender! And—”

“Katara,” Xun stopped her with a laugh, feeling her head reel from the sudden onslaught of information. And _she_ was named “fast” or “sudden”! Katara, she had discovered, could easily rival her for that title when she was excited. “I need you to slow down and tell me each bit one at a time.”

“Sorry,” Katara said, her cheeks turning red in her embarrassment. She leaned into the buffalo, cuddling up to the fur. “Xun, meet Appa. Appa, this is Xun, or Youko.”

“It is nice to meet you, Appa.” She bowed, trying to make sure her hands were in the Water Tribe positioning rather than the Fire Nation’s traditional form. “Now, Katara, where did you say he came from?”

“Oh! Sorry,” Katara giggled. “Sokka and I found him and a boy named Aang trapped in an iceberg while we were fishing. Aang was pretty warn out, so he’s resting in our tent right now.”

“Aang…” Xun rubbed at her chin in thought, trying to remember what Katara had said. “That name doesn’t sound Water Tribe or Earth Kingdom, and it definitely isn’t Fire Nation. I mean, my grandmother’s name is Yun, but Aang is too…” She wiggled her fingers, trying to find a good way to phrase how the word curled in the back of her throat. In fact, it reminded her very much of Hanuel’s name.

“You’re right,” Katara agreed. “Aang’s an Airbender.”

“What!?” She stumbled back, staring again at the arrows in the sky bison’s fur. An actual Airbender? Could it be _him?_

“I know, right? I never thought I’d see the day I’d meet an _actual_ Airbender! And now one’s here in our village!”

Xun stepped up to Appa and pulled off a glove so she could feel the thick fur. “Sokka doesn’t trust him, either, does he?”

Katara faltered. “Well, no, but—”

“Ah, let him,” she sighed, giving in to Katara’s previous enthusiasm as she let a smile blossom across her lips. “Airbenders tended to be nonviolent, and the majority of them were monks. If Aang is the same, then he’s not about to knowingly do anything that would compromise the safety of the village.”

“You’re right,” Katara agreed. “Oh, look, there he is, now! Come on, I want you to meet him.”

“Oh, but—” _I’m not ready,_ the words died on her lips. She shook her head at herself, incredulous. If this was her purpose here, then who was she to be _ready_? She moved to join the villagers gathering at the center of the courtyard, or as much as they had one. She hung at the back of the group, with a couple of the remaining elderly, and tried to discreetly observe the… _young boy_ now stepping up to meet them at Katara’s behest. He was small, probably three years younger than her at her best guess, and didn’t yet have the look of one who had lost. His bald head, a strange sight on one his age, had what she knew was the traditional tattoo of an Airbending Master, and the arrow on his head was joined by two more on his hands and likely on other parts of his body, too. His clothes were yellow, something she had not thought she would ever get to see, and over this he had a sort of orange poncho and boots. He looked even more foreign here than she had, with his bright clothing and shaved head, and it seemed he felt it.

“Aang,” the Water Tribe girl introduced, smiling her encouragement, “this is the entire village. Entire village, this is Aang.”

They were a small gathering, to be sure. Xun studied the boy, trying to figure out what he thought of that, of them. He looked unsure of himself as he bowed, and Xun flinched as one of the others bumped into her in her haste to back up. Xun’s eyes stayed fixed on his, though, a similar shade of brownish-grey as her own, and he looked rather unsettled as he looked to Katara. “Why are they all looking at me like that? Did Appa sneeze on me?”

Gran-Gran stepped out of the center of the fold, halting his sudden compulsion to check his clothes. “Well,” she answered his question, “no one has seen an Airbender in a hundred years. We thought they were extinct, until my granddaughter and grandson found you.”

“Extinct?” the boy, Aang, cried, looking shocked. Xun’s eyes narrowed, and she pursed her lips. The possibility was looking more like solid fact to her, now, since he genuinely seemed to know nothing about that. There was no way any normal Waterbender or Airbender could have survived more than a few minutes stuck in a iceberg, let alone a hundred years. She’d have to ask Katara or Sokka what he had looked like inside of it before she could be certain, but the evidence pointed very strongly toward Aang being the Avatar. The Last Airbender, her mother had mentioned once, who had disappeared a hundred years ago in the days of Hanuel and Xiu, a mere month before the destruction of the Air Nomads and their temples.

Katara gestured to Gran-Gran, smiling obliviously. “Aang, this is my grandmother.”

“Call me Gran-Gran,” the old woman instructed. 

“Oh!” the girl continued, spying Xun in the back. “I’d like you to meet my friend Xun, too. Xun, come here!”

Sighing, Xun moved forward to stand next to Gran-Gran, bowing a formal greeting to the young Airbender. “It is good to meet you, Aang,” she said to him. “I am Xun, or Youko.”

Aang, his expression cleared of any confusion, skipped forward to return her bow, smiling happily. “Nice to meet you, Xun! You’re not from around here, either, are you? Wow, you must be cared about a _lot_ to be given a Water Tribe name!”

Xun blinked, and felt a warm smile beginning. “I care for them very much, and this has been my home for the past two months. The spirits sent me here from the Western Air Temple to wait for my purpose, and in that time I have made good friends of these kind people.” Except, in part, for Sokka, who was now moving forward to inspect Aang’s tall staff. He grabbed it, frowning, and moved it around in his hands, effectively distracting Aang from what she had said. 

“What is this, a weapon?” Sokka asked sourly. “You can’t stab anyone with this!”

“Doesn’t need to be pokey to be a weapon, Sokka,” Xun pointed out with a roll of her eyes. “I’ve seen people fight with staffs before—though they tend to be topped by spears so it’s a moot point there, I guess.”

“And it’s not for stabbing, anyway, silly!” Aang agreed with a laugh. “It’s for airbending!”

He took the staff back into his own hands, and orange wings popped open with a snap. They matched the overlay on his clothes in color, but instead of being soft and flowing they were rigid and folded. Appreciative of the sight, one of the little girls, Sung, clapped her hands and cheered. “Magic trick!”

“Not magic, _airbending_ ,” Aang corrected. He moved the glider about, his body bending and weaving as he pantomimed the turns. “It lets me control the air currents around my glider and fly.”  
Sokka, the ever-skeptical, scoffed at that. “Ya know, the last time I checked, humans can’t fly!”

“Check again!” He leapt up, catching the glider with his hands and feet as he did so, and took off with a blast of wind. Xun braced herself against the chilly air, pushing back with her feet to prevent herself from getting knocked over. An excited cheer from the kids drew her attention to the sky, and she lowered her arms just in time for her breath to catch in her throat. Her heart pounded double-time, the rush of blood echoing in her ears, and she beheld what had been impossible for the last century.

“He’s flying!” one of the little girls squealed. A boy echoed her with a cheer of his own. “He’s amazing!”

And then he hit the tower. Xun gasped, her hands coming to her mouth, and she stared in shock as the snow crumbled down around the boy. “My watchtower!” Sokka screeched.

Laughter bubbled up in her chest, and she buried the sound in her gloves. As Katara ran forward, though, she slipped away, snickering to herself as she left to consider what had just happened. The reeling of her mind had not ended with Aang’s appearance, and the reality had only increased the rushing spin. A glance at Gran-Gran produced a permitting nod, as the old woman saw tension in the lines of her face and shoulders that she hadn’t previously realized where there in the first place, and Xun took the granted opportunity to duck into their tent for some much-needed meditation.

... ... ...

She often lost track of time while meditating, old habits having her grasp fruitlessly at the heat of the flames before her and faded disappointment sending her into the oblivion of silence. It was Gran-Gran’s entrance that brought her out of it this time, and she watched quietly as the old woman knelt across from her, settling down on the other side of the candles. 

“It is him, isn’t it?” Gran-Gran asked softly. In return, Xun nodded slowly.

“I think it is. And when he leaves here, I must leave with him. I’ve waited for only two months for this day, but it feels like two years, almost. That spirit sent me here to be a help to the Avatar. Having found him…”

Gran-Gran smiled her acceptance. “I understand. We will miss you, you know. You truly are one of us.”

Xun bowed forward, touching her head to the ground. “Thank you, Gran-Gran. I will miss you, too, and I will hold the name you gave me close in my heart.”

The old woman bowed back to her, a sight revealed by a glance upwards, and Xun held in a gasp. She had never done that before. “You have been as a granddaughter to me in these past days, and I am grateful that you chose to spend those days with us. Go with my blessing, and—”

There was a scream from outside. “Flare!” came the shout, and Xun sucked in a breath. A flare? No, not now, not—

Sokka burst into the tent, his gaze automatically searching her out to confirm her location before turning to his grandmother. “Gran-Gran—”

“I heard, Sokka,” Gran-Gran answered tiredly. “It is likely from the ship that was stranded in the early days of the war.”

“The Airbender!” Sokka hissed angrily. Xun moved to speak, but a shake of the head from Gran-Gran stopped her. No, it probably was better that Aang’s identity remain a secret. But Sokka was not going to let this slide, and there would be no dissuading him from the course he had clearly already chosen. Her heart clenching, she looked mournfully to the old woman as Sokka stormed back outside.

“This is goodbye, isn’t it?” she asked quietly.

Gran-Gran nodded. “It is better that he not be here when the Fire Navy comes. Go with my blessing, child, and our love.”

Xun bowed again, then, with an undeniable sense of urgency, stood and dodged around the candles to wrap Gran-Gran in her arms. Gran-Gran reminded her so much of Grandma Yun, and she would much rather have Gran-Gran in place of her paternal grandmother. She didn’t want to let go. But eventually, she knew, she would have to, and her world would topple sideways once more.


	5. Chapter Four: The Avatar Returns, part 1

It wasn’t difficult to pack her bag, in the end. Gran-Gran supplied her with parcels of food, which all went on top, and the clothes went at the bottom. Her bedroll was tied to the outside with some handy straps, and at her waist she buckled the sheath of a short dagger that her mother had buried in the middle of her pack. Its handle was wrapped in a light brown leather, and the blade itself shone like the purest silver, nearly white in color. She wasn’t sure what its origins were, but it didn’t look anything like the Fire Nation daggers her father kept around, or the Water Tribe blades that the women always kept close at hand. That, she decided, meant it was either Earth Kingdom or, somehow, possibly even from the Air Nomads as a defensive and utilitarian tool. 

Its sheath, made of the same metal as the blade, was coated in a protective film that dulled the shine to a matte. This kept the weapon from being too obvious in its presence, and it blended in with her coat very easily. It wasn’t a sword, to her dissatisfaction, but it would do until she could afford to buy one of those in the Earth Kingdom.

The call went up; Katara and Aang were back, and Xun took up her bag and settled it on her shoulders as if greeting an old acquaintance. It was comfortable, if not necessarily welcome in that moment.

Sokka was already at work accusing Aang of treachery as Xun came up behind the gathered crowd. His mind was hard to change on a good day, and the nationless girl knew he had already made his decision before entering the tent, earlier. Whatever chance Aang or Katara had of dissuading him, they had already lost it in their stumbling words. 

“Aha!” he was saying as Xun slipped up behind one of the older mothers. “The traitor confesses! Warriors, away from the enemy! The foreigner is banished from the village.”

Xun winced, even as Katara stepped forward, reaching out. That could easily have been her, too, if she had gone with them on whatever adventure it was that had ended in such disaster. Sokka’s trust in her was tenuous enough, though as it was…

“Sokka, you’re making a mistake.”

“No, I’m keeping my promise to Dad.” His jaw set, and he pointed to Aang. “I’m protecting you from threats like him!”

“He is _not_ our _enemy!_ ” Katara shot back, furious. She took a breath, her expression pained. “Don’t you see? Aang has brought us something we haven’t had in a long time, something not even Xun could bring us. _Fun_.”

“ _Fun?_ ” Sokka’s jaw dropped. “Fun?! Katara, we can’t fight Firebenders with _fun!_ ”

“You should try it sometime,” Aang quipped, smiling hopefully. That smile died when Sokka’s finger returned to point at him, then moved toward the open landscape. 

“Get out of our village!” he demanded. “ _Now!_ ”

Katara turned to Gran-Gran, earnestness in her voice and posture. “Grandmother, please. Don’t let Sokka do this!”

At the back of the crowd, Xun closed her eyes. For the sake of the village, for the sake of the world, Gran-Gran would not be able to accede to Katara’s request. Aang would have to be sent away, before the Fire Navy arrived to capture the inexperienced Bender. Confirming this, Gran-Gran shook her head. “Katara, you knew going on that ship was forbidden. Sokka is right. I think it best that the Airbender leaves.”

“Fine! Then I’m banished, too!” Katara grabbed Aang’s hand before Xun could reveal herself, dragging Aang toward Appa. “Come on, Aang, let’s go.”

Sokka stepped forward in shock. “Where do you think _you’re_ going, Katara?”

“To find a Waterbender,” Katara shot back at him. Xun’s brow furrowed; she hadn’t found out herself until today, and they had already told Aang? Well, given the method of Aang’s release, they probably would have had to, and Katara was likely too excited to see another Bender to keep a secret like that in. She continued, sounding more pained than angry, “Aang’s taking me to the North Pole!”

“I am?” Aang asked, surprised. Showing just how young he was, he grinned in the next moment. “Great!”

“Katara,” Sokka protested, “would you really choose him over your own tribe? Your own _family?_ ”

Katara stopped, so conflicted, and Aang spoke a quiet word to her before walking to Appa, who stood waiting a few feet away. Some quick airbending later, and he sat on Appa’s neck, between the horns and the saddle. Katara ran up to him, the conversation that followed being too quiet for Xun to hear, and she took that as her cue to step up to Gran-Gran’s side. 

“It’s been an honor, Grandmother,” Xun told the old woman with a shaky smile. 

“The honor has been mine, Youko,” Gran-Gran answered her. “Be safe, and take care of him and yourself.”

“I will.”

Sokka turned to her, hearing the words, and blinked in surprise. “Xun? What are _you_ doing?”

She had effectively drawn the attention of the entire village to herself now, and Xun self-consciously adjusted the pack across her shoulders as she shifted her weight on her feet. “The spirits sent me here for a purpose, Sokka. I believe that Aang is that purpose, and I am going with him.”

“But—Xun—” Katara, from where she stood by Appa, stepped toward her, and Xun walked to meet her and threw her arms around the younger girl.

“You’ve been the sister I’ve never had, Katara,” she told her quietly. “But my task isn’t here, it’s with Aang, and always has been. I just haven’t known where to look until you brought him back. Take care of Sokka and Gran-Gran, he definitely needs it. And take care of yourself, because you need it, too, all right?”

Katara nodded into her shoulder, and Xun felt the sleeve becoming damp but didn’t care. “Goodbye, Xun.”

“Goodbye, Katara. I will miss everyone here, and especially you.” She withdrew, gave Katara one more smile as she held her by the shoulders, and then approached Appa. “Permission to climb aboard?”

“Uh, sure,” Aang said, blinking at her. He held out his hand, and she used the support to climb into Appa’s saddle. When she was in, he faced the villagers. “It was nice meeting everyone,” he told them.

Xun gave a wave for herself, and then a bow from her waist, hands clasped before her in the traditional pose. “Thank you for your hospitality these last two months. You have truly honored me.”

Sokka scowled his upset at her, and crossed his arms before facing Aang again. “Let’s see your bison fly _now_ , Airboy.”

Aang just smiled. “Come on, Appa, you can do it! Yip-yip!” He flicked the reins, but instead of flying the bison only stood and started walking down the path. 

“Yeah, I thought so!” Sokka called after them. One of the little girls gave a wail and ran to give chase, causing Aang to pull Appa to a halt. 

“Don’t go, Xun, Aang,” she cried, lower lip jutting out in the cutest and saddest pout Xun had ever seen. “I’ll miss you!”

“I’ll miss you, too,” Xun told her, wiping her eyes with the corner of her sleeve as she felt them burning, little Aya’s plea tugging at her heart. 

“I will, too,” Aang assured the child. “Be good, okay?” He smiled down at the girl, and Xun saw the smile turn sad as he looked up at the villagers. She looked herself, met Katara’s gaze where Aang’s had led, and clenched a fist over her heart. It felt like it had when she left her mother, like her whole world was breaking apart and only the purpose placed in front of her was what kept it from crumbling to pieces. She bowed her head, feeling the tears freezing on her cheeks, and didn’t look up until Aang urged Appa on his way. Katara and the villagers eventually faded into the distance, and then it was just her and the Avatar.

... ... ...

They had stopped to rest, the journey silent until now, and they were quite a few miles away from the village when Aang finally asked the question that had probably been burning in his mind. 

“Why did you come with me? You don’t even know me, and you left the people who had become your family for— for _me_.”

Xun shook her head. “You know exactly why I’m here, Aang. You’ve heard me mention the spirits too often for you to not know.”

He flushed. “Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

“Because it’s obvious you don’t want anyone to know, and in secrecy there is also safety. Though if word gets out that there was an Airbender in the village, the Fire Navy is going to know, anyway. But the spirits sent me to help you, and I can’t choose the village over you or I might as well have stayed with Mother because I think you were the entire point of me coming here in the first place.”

“Oh.” He sighed, dropping into a hollow in the ice as Appa settled next to him. His gaze turned back to the village, and at Appa’s low rumble he murmured back, “Yeah. I liked her, too.”

Xun smiled sadly as she scratched Appa’s side. “Katara is a good friend to have, the best. She is very passionate about everything she does, and while she can get jealous sometimes I have never found a truer friend in all my life. Sokka, too, for all his stubbornness and distrust and misogyny. He never really fully accepted me into the village, not yet… And now I don’t think he ever will.”

The noise Aang made sounded sympathetic, and then it turned strangled. “The village!” he gasped. Xun looked and her heart almost stopped. 

“The Fire Navy,” she whispered in horror. It was a small ship, smaller and older than she had ever seen on the docks, but it was unmistakable in its design. “So soon?”

Aang stood up, his grip tight on his glider. “I have to help them.”

Xun touched the dagger on her waist, felt the painful clench in her chest. “If you’re going anyway, then I’m coming, too,” she decided. There was no sense in staying behind if the Avatar put himself in harm’s way to protect her village.

In answer, Aang nodded sharply. “Appa, stay here. Come on, Xun, we’re going penguin sledding.”

... ... ...

Xun shrieked, feeling the wind whip past her head and the ground slide down beneath her. “Never doing this again!”

Aang laughed, an exhilaration tainted by the worry of what was to come. “Hold on tight!” he instructed, leaning further into his own ride. Xun did the same, clenching her teeth, and did her best to steer after the young Airbender. The village was just up ahead, and— Sokka was facing off against a Firebender, she realized with a hiss as she squinted through the wind and the glare, and he was losing. The Firebender stood tall over the village’s guardian, and Sokka was holding his head in what looked to be pain. A glint of light caught her eye, and when she blinked the Firebender was on the ground, grabbing at his own head. Sokka’s boomerang!

Her joy was short lived, though. She missed something over the next rise, because next she knew the Firebender was standing again, flames leaping from his fists. And then Aang plowed right into his legs, and the wash of snow and flailing Firebender sent her tumbling from her own penguin with a muffled scream. She ended up tangled in the man’s limbs for a moment, and as soon as they came a halt she was kicking back and away, scrambling upright to back away from the Fire Nation soldiers. There was cheering behind her, calls of her Water Tribe name and Aang’s, but she felt stuck in a tunnel as she stared in shock at the man—at the _boy_ , maybe only a year or two older than her—she had been sent flying with. He was getting to his feet as quickly as he could, but it seemed her kicks had done something because he clutched his ribs and winced as he rose up. His helmet had fallen off in the scuffle, and the majority of his head was bald except for the trailing mane of hair held in a topknot, looking more like a ponytail than the traditional hairstyle. His face was heavily scarred over his left eye, massive damage done by a large burn, but it was the eyes themselves that drew her attention the most. They were _gold_ , or else amber like the chamber’s bronzework, and they sparked like bits of fire in his anger. Amber eyes were rare enough, even in the Fire Nation, and combined with the scar…

“The Fire Prince,” she hissed in shock, scrambling back a few more steps as she felt the blood drain from her face. “Oh, spirits, _no_.”

He snarled at her, stalking forward a few steps while she recovered herself and placed her body between him and the villagers—and Aang. “Who are you?” he demanded. “How do you know me?”

In her fear, Xun finally remembered the dagger at her waist and drew it protectively, falling into a basic stance scrounged from beneath the panic. “I am Youko,” she answered his challenge, filling her voice with ice to meet his heat, claiming the place given her by the village. “And you’ll find that some Earth Kingdom citizens in your cursed _colonies_ do actually know of what you look like. Now, stay back! I will not let you harm my village.”

The Prince sneered and sent a wave of fire in answer. Before she could duck or raise her arm in protection, a blast of air sent the fire curling back. A surprisingly strong hand grasped the back of her coat and pulled her backwards to fall before the villagers, and then Aang stood before them all, staff held protectively. “Looking for me?” he challenged. Xun cried out in protest, but the Prince was staring at Aang.

“You’re the Airbender?” he said in his surprise. “ _You’re_ the Avatar?”

“Aang?” Katara’s voice asked, before her hands helped Xun stand up from the ice. Sokka was on Xun’s other arm, his warpaint smeared from too many encounters with the snow, and he was in just as much shock as his sister. “No way…”

Aang and the Prince had begun to circle, and the Water Tribe siblings suddenly had to physically hold Xun back as she strained to get to Aang’s side to protect the Avatar as she felt her purpose dictated. The Prince was speaking, his voice mulling. “I’ve spent years preparing for this encounter, training, meditating. You’re just a child!”

True to form, Aang wrinkled his nose. “Well, you’re just a teenager.”

With a cry of anger, the Prince sent fire lashing out in retaliation. Xun flinched backward, painful memories telling her to stay away from those flames, and Aang spun his staff to keep the fire at bay. He looked to them, fear in his eyes, and then turned back to the Fire Prince. A burst of wind to knock the Prince back, and then Aang planted his staff in the ground before him. 

“If I go with you, will you promise to leave everyone alone? Including Youko, she stays here.”

The Prince paused, considered it, and finally nodded. Xun lunged forward, but was pulled back by Sokka. “Aang, you idiot!” Katara’s voice rose with hers in protest, pleading with the boy, and Aang smiled back at them. 

“It’ll be okay,” he promised them. “Take care of Appa for me until I get back!”

Xun pulled uselessly against Sokka’s grasp. “If you go, you won’t _be_ back!”

But her words fell on deaf ears, and the soldiers marched away with Aang in tow. He smiled down one last time before the ramp closed, and with him went Xun’s hope.


	6. Chapter Five: The Avatar Returns, part 2

Katara’s shouts were a rushing echo as she sprinted out across the ice, back toward where Appa rested and where she and Aang had their only real conversation. She had avoided the boy before, when trying to wrestle with the new information heaped upon her, but now she felt as if he was where her entire life led to. He, the Avatar, subject of legends whispered in the night with her father’s absence; he, the Avatar, whom the spirits had sent her to two months ago, to wait among the icicles while he sat frozen in one, himself. The Fire Nation would lock him up forever, would crush his spirit, destroy any hope and drive that lay within him. They would chew him up, and would never spit him out until he turned old and grey and feeble, and by then the nations would be crushed and shattered beneath the Fire Navy’s heavy boots. The world would burn to ash, and genocide would be inevitable.

Her lungs were burning by the time she reached the bison lumbering toward her. He sent out a low call, and she dove forward the last few feet to bury her face in his neck. “Appa, they took him,” she gasped out. “They took Aang!”

Appa must have understood, because the growl he gave was angry, and there was a sense of urgency to him as he nudged his great head against her. Sniffing on tears, Xun tried to sense what he wanted her to do but could only guess that he wanted her to climb aboard. So she did so, and he immediately set out toward the village. Katara, she realized; she must have made an impression on Appa, with how much time she had spent with Aang. And she would need the siblings’ help if she was going to succeed in any way at busting Aang out of that ship.

“Find Katara, buddy,” she told him hoarsely, laying against his head and clinging tightly to his fur. “There’s a good boy.”

... ... ...

It was Gran-Gran’s voice she heard as Appa started up the rise to get over to the coast. “He’s the world’s only hope,” she was saying. She must have been talking about Aang. “You both found him for a reason. Now your destinies are intertwined with his, and with Xun’s, for she must follow the Avatar the same as you.”

Xun sat up, and they were over the hill, just in time for Katara to groan, “There’s no way we’re going to catch a warship with a canoe.” Appa growled out, and the girl and her brother turned sharply to face them. “Appa!” she cried happily, and then she spotted the older girl on top of the bison. “Xun! You came back!”

She blushed. “I didn’t really leave, I guess. I just— All I could think of was getting to Appa. Sorry for making you worry.”

“As you should be!” Sokka exclaimed, throwing his hands up. “Seriously, you gave us a heart attack.”

Xun blinked at him in surprise, then smiled. _I guess he does care, after all, at least a little._ But she said nothing, knowing his pride, and reached out a hand to help Katara climb up. “Come on,” she told them. “We’re going to rescue Aang.”

Sokka looked uncomfortable at the thought of climbing up, though he did grab their supplies to load into Appa’s saddle. “You two just love taking me out of my comfort zone, don’t you?” he whined. Xun snickered, taking the pack from him to pass to Katara, and then smiled down at Gran-Gran as Sokka scrambled up with the help of his sister. 

“I’ll try to keep them safe,” she promised.

“I know you will,” the old woman answered, waving. “Now, go, he needs you all.”

Xun flicked the reins, and Appa slid into the water and began to swim.

... ... ...

Sokka lasted only a few minutes before succumbing to Appa’s slow speed. He sighed, leaning back against the saddle, and started to grumble under his breath. Up front, Katara had replaced Xun at the reins and smiled her reassurance to the bison, who rumbled softly. Between the siblings, Xun groaned and buried her face in her arms. “I wish I could remember what was suppose to make him fly.”

“Go,” Sokka suggested, voice deadpan. “Fly. Soar.”

Katara shook her head and looked down. “Please, Appa. We need your help— _Aang_ needs your help.”

“Up. Ascend. Elevate!” the boy continued to guess. Xun snickered, somehow able to feel a bit of humor in the situation. 

Leaning down, Katara pet the side of Appa’s head and sighed. “Sokka doesn’t believe you can fly, but I do, Appa,” she gushed. “And I know Xun does, too! Come on, don’t you want to save Aang?”

Appa sped up a little, but nothing else really changed, and Xun frowned. “I don’t think that’s the problem. He can only understand us so much, I think, and he’s pretty much trained to listen for that particular phrase.”

“Yeah,” Sokka agreed, crossing his arms. “And what was it that kid said? Yee-haw? Hup-hup? Wahoo? Uh, yip-yip?”

An explosion of motion, and Appa’s tail began to move faster and faster. Then they were airborne, the bison practically leaping from the waves. Katara and Xun stared in shock at each other, and behind them Sokka was going nuts. “You did it, Sokka!” Katara cheered.

“He’s flying! He’s _flying!_ Katara, he’s—” He stopped, seeing the twin expressions on the girls’ faces, and blushed, immediately schooling his features to seem nonchalant. “I— I mean, big deal, he’s flying.” But Xun could see the grin on his face when he looked back down at the water, and laughed gleefully. For her own part, she was enjoying the wind in her face in a way that she couldn’t get from riding the otter-penguin. The thrill and speed had almost overwhelmed her there, and most of her focus had been on staying aboard and on getting to the village in time. Here, there was just… She grasped at the word, but couldn’t catch it yet, so turned back to the matter at hand. At the speed Appa was going, it shouldn’t be long at all before they caught up to the Prince’s ship, and she wasn’t sure what she was going to do then. She hadn’t had a chance yet to test her skills against the soldiers, but they were all grown men and, as the Prince had said, he had years of training and could keep them at bay with his Firebending. 

Katara spotted it first. “Down there!” she cried, pointing to the ship leaving a trail of black smoke. “Appa, go there!” 

They all held on tight. There were flashes of orange from the deck of the ship, lances of fire being thrown about. A small form, orange and yellow, was being backed up to the rail, and then he went tumbling down over the side. Xun lunged forward instinctively, but Sokka grabbed her arm as Katara cried out, “Aang! No!”

Together, they screamed his name, calling for the boy underneath the waves. Sokka’s grip tightened, and Xun gasped as she saw a flare of white in the water. “Is that—?”

A funnel rose from the sea, growing and growing to be capped by a small form shining like the sun from his eyes and the tattoos upon his skin. He wasn’t Aang, that much Xun could tell—at least, it was Aang’s body but it wasn’t Aang controlling it. The funnel moved forward, bending with the motion, and then the Avatar stood upon the deck and swung his hands back. The water stream flowed about him in a thick band, cycling faster with each revolution, and spread out to whip against the shocked Fire Navy soldiers, knocking them back to the rail. A pale head went over, the Fire Prince, and then Xun was distracted by an excited Katara. 

“Did you see what he just did?!”

“Now that,” Sokka proclaimed, “was some _waterbending_.” 

On the deck, Aang started to topple. Whatever gave him such massive power before, it had drained his energy, and he was suddenly vulnerable. Appa landed, allowing the kids to get off, and Xun and Sokka followed quickly after Katara as she ran to Aang, calling his name. “Are you okay?” the Waterbender asked worriedly.

Aang blinked groggily up at them as Katara gathered him into his lap. “Hey, guys. Thanks for coming.”

“Well, I couldn’t let you have _all_ the glory,” Sokka teased.

The boy groaned, and his head lolled to the left. “I dropped my staff,” he told them, sounding so tired. If this was how he was after he came after the Avatar State, it was no wonder he spent a while sleeping when he first came to the village. Xun reached out, helping Katara stand him up, and settled one of his arms over her shoulders.

“Come on, Aang, let’s get you to Appa,” she said. “Poor guy misses you.”

Aang laughed weakly. “Thanks for looking out for him, you two.”

“It’s our pleasure,” Katara assured him. “Here, climb up on Appa.”

As he did, Xun looked back at the soldiers rising to their feet. “Katara,” she snapped in warning, “behind.”

Katara gasped. “Hang on,” she said, bending down and waving her arms forward. She Bent the water upwards, trying to form it into a whip like Aang’s Avatar State had, but when she went to complete the motion the water shot backwards instead of where she had intended. Sokka’s voice shouted his sister’s name in protest, and she tried again.

“Fluidly,” Xun told her, scrambling up aboard Appa, “less tension in the arms.” Katara had turned around this time, so when the same thing happened as before, it got the soldiers instead. She climbed into Appa’s saddle with Xun’s help, and soon Sokka came running up Appa’s tail, yelping, “Yip-yip! Yip-yip!” Appa took off, and the older girl turned to watch the ship shrinking in the distance, sighing in relief as the space between them grew with each passing moment. The Fire Prince had survived, she saw, and as she watched an old man reached down over the side and helped him back onto the deck. Then they started moving, and Xun jerked back as she recognized the forms.

“Incoming!” she called to the others. Aang leapt from Appa’s head to land before her on the back of the saddle, and he gave a great sweep of his staff, grunting at the effort. The bright, hot stream of flames hit the wall of air and turned into the cliff face, and as she watched a great heap of ice and snow fell to bury the prow of the ship. Sokka cheered, but for her part Xun winced. The Prince had escaped unscathed, and she knew this wasn’t the last they would see of him.

... ... ...

The sun finally began to set the further north they traveled, and Xun leaned over the side of the saddle with a heady sigh. “Oh, glorious red and yellow, burn and glow and send me to sleep,” she waxed with exaggerated formality in her voice. “Go to your rest, and let me frickin’ go to mine!”

Katara giggled quietly at her final shout, but she seemed enraptured by the sight just the same. “It’s beautiful,” she told the other girl, smiling warmly. “I can see why you would miss it.”

“It, and being able to see the moon and stars shine overhead,” Xun agreed, flopping over onto her back. “I didn’t realize just how much I _would_ miss things like a full sunset and the night sky until I got sent to your village. The sun is to me as your ocean is to you, and its daily cycles are a part of my life.”

“Understandable,” her friend agreed, nodding. Then the Waterbender sat up and turned to Aang. “That reminds me… How did you _do_ that? I mean, with the water. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen!”

Perched on the front of the saddle, staring off into the sky, Aang shrugged his shoulders and bowed his head. “I dunno, I just, sort of… _did_ it.” He looked at Katara, expression sheepish, and was hit by two equally questioning looks from the siblings. 

“Why didn’t you tell us you were the Avatar?” Katara asked, more softly this time. 

“Because…” Aang sighed. “I never wanted to be.” 

Katara digested that for a while, staring up at the young boy with a sense of wonder in her eyes. Xun shifted her weight, and Katara looked to her. “Did you know, Xun?”

Xun nodded. “I had strong suspicions, based on what I already knew. Mother told me the spirits were summoning me to help the Avatar, if I chose that path. And even a Master Waterbender or Master Airbender couldn’t survive a hundred years in a block of ice. Only the Avatar could have done that, suspended in the Avatar State. There were other clues, too, but even that was enough for me to know.”

“And why didn’t _you_ tell us?” Sokka asked.

“Because if Aang hadn’t mentioned it already,” Xun said with a shrug, “I figured I shouldn’t, either. Gran-Gran and I thought it was best to keep it quiet, until push came to shove in the village, there, with Prince Zuko.” 

“Fair enough,” Katara agreed. “And I understand why you’d hide your identity because you didn’t want it in the first place, Aang, but the world has been waiting a long time for the Avatar to return and _finally_ put an end to this war.”

“And how am I going to do that?” Aang asked, his shoulders dropping.

“Well, according to legend, you need to first master water, then earth, then fire, right?”

“That’s what the monks told me.”

“Well, if we go to the North Pole,” she continued, cheering up, “you could master waterbending.”

Aang perked up at that, his eyes catching the rays of the sun and shining. “We could learn it together!”

“And Sokka, I’m sure you’ll get to knock some Firebender heads on the way.”

“I’d like that,” her brother agreed with a smirk. “I’d _really_ like that.”

Xun rolled back over to face the sunset. “And while I help Aang, as the spirits wanted, I can see more of this world—see what my people have done to it, and the truth of my mother’s stories.”  
“Your people?” Aang asked.

“Xun is from the Fire Nation,” Katara explained. “When she came to our village a couple months ago, she renounced loyalty to the Fire Lord and, I guess, pledged loyalty to you, as well as our village.”

“My mother would always tell me stories of the old days, when the nations were in harmony,” Xun continued with a pained grimace. “She told me that what the Fire Navy was doing was not grand and glorious, but terrible and an abomination. The world is suffering, and now I can finally see the evidence of that. I am with you, Aang, not just for the spirits but for myself, for my mother, for the nation that doesn’t realize its own folly.”

“Thank you,” Aang accepted with a warm smile. “I am glad to have you with us.”

“We’re all in this together,” Katara agreed.

“Right! But before I learn waterbending, we have some serious business to attend to. Here, here, and here.”

Xun peered down at the map Aang pulled out, wrinkling her nose. “Like what?”

“Yeah, what’s there?” the Waterbender asked, pointing to the first place Aang had indicated.

“Well, here, we’ll ride the hopping llamas. Then, waaay over here, we’ll surf on the backs of giant koi fish!” Llamas. Koi fish. Xun rubbed at her ears, but it seemed she was hearing correctly, because he kept talking. “Then back over here we’ll ride the hogmonkeys. They don’t like people riding them—but that’s what makes it fun!”

Llamas, koi fish, hogmonkeys. _Oh, spirits, give me patience._


	7. Chapter Six: The Southern Air Temple, part 1

_“And so Hanuel left to search for the lost Avatar, and Xiu watched and waited in vain until the word came. The Air Nomads had fallen, and she knew her beloved had fallen with them. She was heartbroken, and this did not ease with the new knowledge of her pregnancy. She did not tell her parents who the child’s father was, and they sought immediately for a marriage for her. Being nobles, they had influence and reach, and managed to find one within a week’s time who would take Xiu as his own. His name was Seok, and he was a kind man and had just lost his betrothed to a shipwreck. Xiu and Seok found comfort in each other, and Seok raised Hanuel and Xiu’s daughter as his own.”_

_“What happened to the baby, Mom?” Little Xun blinked sad eyes up at her mother, arms wrapped around a stuffed dragon. “Did Xiu and Seok live happy together?”_

_“The child’s tale is one for another time, little firebird,” Xiang said fondly to the young girl. “As for those two, they were happy. So very happy, and they loved each other very much. Not all arranged marriages are like mine.”_

_“I know.” The nine-year-old clutched her dragon closer. “Father is not coming home today, is he?”_

_“No, he won’t be back for another month.”_

_“That is good.” The girl snuggled into her mother’s side. “I saw a sparrowkeet and a firehawk on the garden fence today. The hawk was so bright red, like the setting sun, and the other bird was as blue as the noonday sky. They weren’t even fighting, just watching me practice.”_

_“Blue. That is a rare color,” Xiang observed, smiling. “Did you paint them?”_

_“No. I know my Master said it was a good skill to practice, to see a scene and remember it, but I didn’t want to share them with anybody. They felt…special.”_

_She fairly preened as Xiang kissed her hair. “If you think they are special, then they are, my dear.”_

_“Thanks, Mom.” She clutched her mother’s robes in her hands. “Why do you tell me about Hanuel and Xiu, Mom?”_

_“Because the world is not how it should be. Because there used to be peace among the nations, and I would see the love between Hanuel and Xiu reborn in the world today. Because you need to know the truth, and the schools and your father are not going to give it to you.”_

_Xun frowned, but nodded. “It’s scary,” she said. “Would the Fire Lord do that to everybody?”_

_“He will, if this path continues unchanged.” There was treason in her words, but neither cared. “We’ll speak more of this tomorrow. You rise early for you lessons, remember.”_

_The girl burrowed into her covers and settled her gaze on the wall lamp. “Did Xiu and Seok have other kids, Mom?”_

_“They did. Two girls, and one boy.” Xiang kissed her cheek and rose from the bed. “Don’t stay awake too long. Goodnight, little firebird.”_

_“Goodnight, Mother.”_

... ... ...

“Chipper” was the word Xun had to use to describe Aang’s demeanor through the next day and into the following morning. He was returning home, excited to see the Southern Air Temple again for the first time since running away and reawakening in the South Pole. As they drew nearer to the mountains, his excitement grew, as did Xun’s dread. For him, it had probably only been a week since he last saw the place, and his friends and mentors. Had Katara warned him of the genocide? He had been told the Airbenders were extinct save for him, but did he truly understand what it meant?

She shared her concerns with Katara early that morning upon her rising, words spoken in a low tone so as not to carry. “Do you think he realizes that nothing is going to be the same?” she asked, gaze shifting to follow the stirring boy as he rolled to his feet to greet the day. “This isn’t going to just be a messy room, this is…” Her expression pinched, and Katara’s echoed it. 

“I know,” she whispered back. “I don’t want to over-stress him, though, he just woke up. I think he needs time to come to terms with it, to accept reality.”

Xun shook her head. “He needs to be told, before it’s too late, Katara. I know what Sozin did, and when he sees the evidence I do not think any of us will prepared for his reaction.”

“We’ll handle it as it comes,” Katara decided. “Let me take care of it, okay?”

Well, she did have more experience in mothering, so Xun acceded to her wishes. “Just…talk to him, okay? He might take it from you better, since you two are close friends already.”

“I will,” the Waterbender promised with a nod. Together, they looked at the bouncing Airbender, and Katara sighed. “At least, I’ll try.”

Xun shook her head reluctantly and went to pack away her bedroll. Preparations were dealt with quickly after the girls got started, and she listened with half an ear as Aang jabbered on about his home. “Wait till you see it, Katara,” he gushed. “The Air Temple is one of the most beautiful places in the world.”

That was certainly true of the Western Air Temple, and if that feat of engineering was replicated at the other temples then Xun figured it would hold true for this one as well. She looked to Katara, though, who was busy at work in Appa’s saddle, and the younger girl nodded gravely before turning to their new friend. “Aang,” she began carefully, “I know you’re excited, but it’s been a hundred years since you’ve been home.”

“That’s why I’m so excited!” Aang didn’t get it, it was clear. Did he think any of his old friends would be around? That some new marvels would be there to see? Xun couldn’t tell, and she bit her tongue to let Katara speak.

The Water Tribe girl frowned. “It’s just that— A lot can change in all that time.”

“I know. But I need to see it for myself.” He hopped down from where he had been tying Appa’s reins, and Katara sent a worried look back at her. Xun shook her head, brow furrowed, and sighed. Subtle wasn’t going to work for this kid, it seemed.

“Wake up, Sokka!” Aang called, walking over to the sleeping boy by the fire. He was the only one not awake, and Xun rolled her eyes to see it. Well, he’d learn in time to wake up earlier. They all would.

The Airbender waved his hands to the sky. “Air Temple, here we come!”

Sokka groaned and rolled over. “Sleep now, temple later.”

Uh-oh. Xun covered her mouth despite herself, recognizing the look in Aang’s eyes as he grinned like an imp. He crept over to a stick lying on the ground and picked it up, then ran it over Sokka’s feet and cried out, “Sokka, wake up! There’s a prickle-snake in your sleeping bag!”

“GYAAA!” Sokka jumped up like a meerdog and squirmed, yelping. “Get it off! Get it off! AAAAH!”

Katara giggled as her brother toppled forward, and he turned to shoot her a dirty look. “Great,” Aang cheered, “you’re awake. Let’s go!”

Xun shook her head and snickered quietly. She wasn’t looking forward to what was coming, but at least Aang was happy for now.

That, she knew, wasn’t going to last long.

... ... ...

Xun sprawled over the edge of the saddle, eyes fixed on the passing landscape. They were above the clouds, now, and to her it looked like a field of snow beneath their feet. Gaps revealed a hazy forest and rolling hills, and she wondered how high up they were to have trees look like bumpy moss. She wasn’t about to check, though, and the mountains rising up out of the clouds to their left gave a pretty good idea.

Behind her, she heard the shifting of baggage as Sokka dug through their packs. His stomach growled at him, and he whined quietly. “Stomach, be quiet, all right? I’m _trying_ to find us some food.” A pause, a wordless noise of outrage, and his voice came more clearly as he turned toward the three up front. “Hey! Who ate all my blubbered seal jerky?”

On Appa’s head, steering, Aang sat up straight and his eyes went wide in realization. “Oh. That was food? I used it to start the campfire last night.” He laughed nervously. “Sorry.”

“You _what?!_ Aww, no wonder the flames smelled so good.” Sokka sounded so sad, Xun just had to take pity on him. Her own stomach was starting to feel empty, too, so she sat up and reached for her own bag.

“Here, Sokka,” she told him. “I might have some salted fish left. Gran-Gran gave me enough for two people to last several days, so we should try to ration it, but I think there’s enough for you to have a bit right now.”

Sokka nearly tackled her in a hug as he threw his arms around her. “Youko, how could I ever doubt you?”

Xun blushed, even more so since he had finally used the name given her by his grandmother. “You’ve had good reason to.”

“Yeah, well, that was before you faced down your old nation’s prince and claimed the village as your own. I’d say that proved your loyalty to me.”

She looked away, heart warmed by his honest declaration, and shoved a wrapped parcel at him. “Just don’t eat it all at once. And…Sokka?”

He paused as he started to open it, eyes shooting to her face as she looked shyly over at him. “Yeah, sis?”

Xun’s mouth flapped open and then she swallowed to get her voice working again. “Thank you.”

Sokka gave her an easy grin, one he had only ever given Katara before. “You’ve earned it, Xun. Maybe you shouldn’t have had to, but you’ve earned it.”

Up front, breaking the moment as he rose to his knees, Aang pointed excitedly. “The Patola Mountain Range!” he announced. “We’re almost there!”

Xun shot a look at Katara, who nodded in return before looking to the young Avatar. “Aang, before we get to the temple, I want to talk to you about the Airbenders.”

“What about them?”

“Well… I just want you to be prepared for what you might see.” She looked away, brow pinched in worry. “The Fire Nation is ruthless. They killed my mother, and they could have done the same to your people.”

Aang considered that for a moment, then he smiled at his new friend. “Just because no one has seen an Airbender doesn’t mean the Fire Nation killed them all. They probably escaped,” he decided.

Xun shared a look with Sokka, who paused in his eating as he listened with her. She shook her head, grey eyes going dark with grief, and her adopted brother lowered the fish to his lap and bowed his head. Up front, with Aang, Katara caught the boy’s attention again, trying to get him to see the truth. “I know it’s hard to accept.”

“You don’t understand, Katara,” Aang returned brightly. “The only way to get to an Airbender temple is on flying bison. And I doubt the Fire Nation has any flying bison. Right, Appa?”

No, they didn’t, but the ruins and silence of the Western Air Temple was enough to tell the tale there. There had been no one left, the entire complex deserted. She wondered with a cold chill of horror what number of skeletons lay in the foggy depths of that canyon, and decided immediately that she’d rather not know for sure.

Aang brought them closer to the tallest mountain in their path, swinging Appa around its form and up the side. The clouds rolled around the rocky heights, parting to its solid bulk, and above them lay a thick green outcrop of trees. Appa came up and over those trees, and there before them lay what almost looked like a small city mashed together with a castle: the Southern Air Temple of the Air Nomads. 

Xun didn’t quite hear what Aang and Katara were saying as they approached, so focused was she on the sight before them. Here it was, the last known location of Hanuel, lover of Xiu. Would she find his remains in these ruins, or did they lie down among the trees at the mountain’s base? This was her chance, she realized, to know his fate for certain, herself.

... ... ...

Aang was running on up ahead, feet skipping along the rocky path. Xun hung back with Katara and Sokka, and though she was relieved and happy to finally be fully accepted into the family by its interim head, she had other things on her mind with the approaching complex—something Katara and Sokka didn’t seem to recognize yet, it seemed.

Sokka grabbed at his stomach, which was complaining again. “So where can I get something to eat?”

“You’re lucky enough to be one of the first outsiders to ever visit an Airbender temple, and all you can think about is food?”

“Hey, I’m just a simple guy with simple needs.”

Xun pressed her lips together, something in her heart clenching as she realized Katara was succumbing to Aang’s optimism for his people’s fate. Did none of the others realize how empty the place was?

Aang stood on a rise at the edge of the path and pointed down to a series of posts with a set of goals on either end. “So, that’s where my friends and I would play airball,” he told them. “And, over there is where the bison would sleep.” His voice started to twist, as he, too, started to see what Xun did. “And…”

“What’s wrong?” Katara asked, stepping toward him. 

Aang shrugged, throwing his hands out to indicate everything in sight. “This place used to be full of monks and lemurs and bison. Now there’s just a bunch of weeds.” He sighed, shoulders dropping. “I can’t believe how much things have changed.”

The Water Tribe siblings looked at each other, and Sokka pushed some curiosity into his voice. “So, this airball game. How do you play?” Aang cheered up, starting to lead Sokka to a path that lead down to the posts, but Xun hung back and frowned. The longer they put this off, she felt, the worse Aang would take it. Hope was good, yes, but not when it would inevitably lie crushed in the dirt. 

Down at the court, she stood with Katara to watch her brother attempt a game a non-Airbender had no real hope for. Perhaps someone a lot more skilled at the martial arts could manage, but Sokka was too new and inexperienced, and utterly untrained. He never stood a chance as Aang utterly trounced him, the wood and tarnished bronze posts and goals too high up in the air for him to do…anything, really. He tumbled into some bushes, the score zero to Aang’s seven, and groaned. “Making him feel better is putting me in a world of hurt,” he moped. He paused, going quiet, before crawling forward, and Xun moved to join him. Then she hissed, spying the Fire Nation helmet that lay battered and scorched in the snow at the cliffside.

“Katara,” Sokka beckoned her, voice quiet. “Check this out.”

Katara came, and went still. “Fire Nation,” she echoed their thoughts, her tone dark. Toeing the helmet, Xun held her tongue from saying anything like “I told you so,” knowing it would never be taken well by anyone in this sort of circumstance. She looked up at the temple, already knowing what they would find in those halls, and swallowed past the lump in her throat.

Sokka looked up at his sister. “We should tell him.”

His sister nodded, and turned to the posts. “Aang,” she called, “there’s something you need to see.”

Skipping along, sweeping the game ball along his arms, Aang approached them with a cheerful smile. “Okay,” he agreed. Katara looked from him to the helmet, back again, and then brought her arms across in a motion that summoned a pile of snow to cover the helmet and, consequently, a startled Sokka. “What is it?”

Xun turned away, hiding her glare from the two Benders. She wanted to grab Katara by the shoulders and ask her what she was doing, to wrap Aang in her arms and tell him flat-out what had really happened—and then she closed her eyes. She couldn’t, and she knew suddenly what Katara felt. Aang, bright, hopeful Aang… Her method of bluntly giving the news to him, that might not go over well, either. Katara would tell him, and gently, but neither girl had it in them to reveal the truth yet. “Just a new waterbending move I learned,” Katara lied, folding her hands behind her back.

Aang grinned. “Nice one. But enough practicing, we have a whole temple to see.”

He walked away, and Sokka stood up, brushing the snow from his head. “You know, you can’t protect him forever,” he told Katara. She nodded sadly, but followed after Aang without another word, leaving Xun with Sokka to stare after them.

“This isn’t going to end well,” Xun whispered, eyes tracing the twisting spires of the temple. Sokka made a noise of agreement, and together they made to catch up to the younger half of the group. They eventually did, in the temple proper, and as Aang ran around Sokka pulled Katara aside.

“Katara, Firebenders were here. You can’t pretend they weren’t.”

“I can for Aang’s sake,” she disagreed, looking imploringly to both of them. “If he finds out that the Fire Nation invaded his home, he’ll be devastated.”

“He already will be,” Xun warned her. “He’s going to find out sooner or later, and you won’t be able to stop it. Katara, he is the last Airbender. He needs to know that, as bad as the news will be. He can’t hold out hope forever, because the letdown later will be even worse if he finds out we kept it from him for so long.”

“Hey, guys!” Aang called, interrupting them before Katara could answer. “I want you to meet somebody!”

He stood before a statue at the end of the courtyard, which had previously been hidden by snow. Aang’s running about hadn’t been that of one looking around, but of an Airbender using his powers to sweep aside winter debris. “Who is that?” Sokka asked, studying the face.

“Monk Gyatso,” the boy answered, “the greatest Airbender in the world. He taught me everything I know.” He bowed to the statue, a moment of reverence and memorial, and Xun clenched her jaw as she recognized the greater pain that was to come. The Firebenders didn’t just wipe out his entire race, they would have had to murder his mentor and the closest thing to a father Aang had ever had. Time alone would have done the job, but given the timing of things she didn’t think that was the case.

Katara walked up to Aang as he straightened, putting a consoling hand on his shoulder. “You must miss him.”

“Yeah,” he agreed quietly, and turned from the statue to the archway.

“Where are you going?” Katara asked.

“The Air Temple Sanctuary,” Aang announced, causing Xun to suck in a breath. “There’s someone I’m ready to meet.” 

The Sanctuary. _“This and the Sanctuary are the closest guarded secrets of the Air Nomads—or they were,”_ her mother had said of the Chamber of Songs. She didn’t know if there was a Sanctuary at the Western Air Temple, but to see the Sanctuary here…

She shook her head. _Focus,_ she told herself. She was falling into Katara’s awe, forgetting the news they would have to give their young friend, who saw effects of the war but was blocked by himself from recognizing them for what they were. She’d let him meet this “someone” in the sanctuary, and if that someone didn’t tell him what was going on then she would—as soon as she figured out how to do so.


End file.
